2 ms·

A child also can't obtain a credit card and pay to hook up an internet connection on their own. If you want a true apples-to-apples comparison using your list

A child also can't obtain a credit card and pay to hook up an internet connection on their own. If you want a true apples-to-apples comparison using your list - you've already purchased beer, cigarettes, liquor, a machine gun, adult books, and a motor vehicle and brought them all home. At that point, it is your responsibility as a parent to ensure your children do not use any of them. Why should internet access be any different? What you're really asking for is an adult other than you to be present in your house to ensure your children don't use things that you don't want them to. That's called a nanny. Unfortunately, the way in which you want this to work is for every house hooked up to the internet to be required to have a nanny. No thank you.

SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
Internet access should be different because it's fundamentally broader and harder to limit than those things. If most people got their drinks from a machine with a monthly subscription, I would definitely say that the machine should check your ID before dispensing beer. Perhaps it has "parental controls" that let you set a beer password, but this is an incomplete solution; it's not practical for me to audit every drink dispenser my kid might spend time around, and it does nothing to protect children of irresponsible parents who can't be bothered to set it up.
- baobun 1y ago
  To make alcohol you need sugar, water, and yeast. No way is internet access "fundamentally broader and harder to limit" than alcohol access.
GauntletWizard 1y ago
This is an insane take in a world where you cannot access basic public services, pay bills, or really do business at all without an internet connection. Connecting your house to a public road is not an invitation for biker gangs to throw drug parties in your backyard, and connecting to the internet is not a free-for-all either.
- timdev2 1y ago
  I find your public road network analogy interesting. Should your car require you to prove your age before it will start? How else can we protect your kid (and others) from the dangers of an 8 year old taking the family sedan for a spin?
- JohnFen 1y ago
  > in a world where you cannot access basic public services, pay bills, or really do business at all without an internet connection That world doesn't exist, though (at least not in my part of the US). I don't need the internet to do any of those things.

SpicyLemonZest 1y ago

Internet access should be different because it's fundamentally broader and harder to limit than those things. If most people got their drinks from a machine with a monthly subscription, I would definitely say that the machine should check your ID before dispensing beer. Perhaps it has "parental controls" that let you set a beer password, but this is an incomplete solution; it's not practical for me to audit every drink dispenser my kid might spend time around, and it does nothing to protect children of irresponsible parents who can't be bothered to set it up.

baobun 1y ago
To make alcohol you need sugar, water, and yeast. No way is internet access "fundamentally broader and harder to limit" than alcohol access.

GauntletWizard 1y ago

This is an insane take in a world where you cannot access basic public services, pay bills, or really do business at all without an internet connection. Connecting your house to a public road is not an invitation for biker gangs to throw drug parties in your backyard, and connecting to the internet is not a free-for-all either.

timdev2 1y ago
I find your public road network analogy interesting. Should your car require you to prove your age before it will start? How else can we protect your kid (and others) from the dangers of an 8 year old taking the family sedan for a spin?
JohnFen 1y ago
> in a world where you cannot access basic public services, pay bills, or really do business at all without an internet connection That world doesn't exist, though (at least not in my part of the US). I don't need the internet to do any of those things.